The Marat Project: Workin' It

I think everyone in the world watched the Oscars except me tonight but with perfectly good reason.

Did a dress-rehearsal with Marat's gear today and my terrific co-worker Gary was excellent enough to devote the larger part of his day to taking some stellar pictures of it. It was good to be able to do this before leaving Tuesday morning because there are a couple things to adjust:

The scarf, so it looks more like a shoddy cravat rather than a boy-scout necktie.
The ermine 'revers' on the jacket. It's only tacked down around the revers and not around the back of the neck. By the end of the day, it was sitting hella strange.
The makeup requires a lot more texture though it's leagues better than most of my attempts in the past. Also, the nose was a rough pour with extra silicone left over from the skin condition prosthetics (more on THOSE later) so the colour isn't right and the edges are singularly horrific.

But without further ado, how about some silly posturing with a pistol and lots self-gratuitous smirking?

The beer! It was called La Guillotine! Many, MANY thanks again to Gary (for the photos) and his wife Lindsay for the lovely dinner afterwards.

Also, a thousand internet high-fives to whoever knows the significance of the apple.

Tomorrow will be busy - running around on a few last-minute errands, packing, and then we're good to head to Seattle for 0600 on Tuesday morning!

The Marat Project: Closing In

So what's new? Let me grab my notebook here. It says to include the following salient points:

Socks
Waistcoat
Ermine Collar
Shirt
Makeup

Salient Point the First: Socks

Naturally the procurement of breeches required appropriate socks and where better place to turn than www.sockdreams.com. Couldn't decide on a colour or a style so $64 and a week later saw this collection arrive on my doorstep:

I'm a bit partial to the olive-coloured ones and the gray ones next to the olive - probably one leg one colour and one leg another. When you're producing a daily newspaper whilst on the run from the police, there's not much time to make sure your socks match. However! Opinions are more than welcome so if you see something that catches your eye, point it out! The breeches are on the left for comparison. N.B. It has to look shitty.

Salient Point the Second: Waistcoat

Not going to lie. The stripey fabric that turns up in the 1780s/90s makes my arms do stupid flaily things. Let's get some examples here.

The ever-dapper Maximilien Robespierre.

The also-dapper students from Les Mis. Sure, 1830s*, but still stripey.

Camille Desmoulins and Max Robespierre from La Revolution francaise

A waistcoat isn't required for Marat's outfit but I want to make one regardless. Because, let's face it, THE SEXIEST. And so, I lay before you The Fabric Selection.

The blue on the left and the red in the middle came from the Stash but I bought the green/brown this week because the earth tones fit nicely with the rest of the outfit and seem appropriate for Marat. The green matches his eyes. <3 #getalife Being upholstery fabric, it's also got a good weight and texture to it so I don't need to interline it. The irregularity of the stripes is a slight issue - most of the striped fabric I've seen from the period has an obvious pattern to it. Compared with the muted tones of the earlier 18th century, it's like the wearers wanted to say "Hey, we're wild but we're not that wild..." I'm sticking with these irregular stripes because... well, because Marat, who was pretty irregular himself. That's on the agenda for this weekend.

Salient Point the Third: "Ermine" Collar

I was nervous about this from the start because I was worried it wouldn't lay right through the comparative thickness of the faux fur. But I threw a linen backing on it over the weekend and it came off without a hitch. Here it is without the seam allowance trimmed and before it was ironed flat:


It actually ironed superbly and sits much better on the coat now. Pictures next post.

Salient Point the Fourth: Shirt

The shirt took up the balance of last week. I hand-stitched the thing because, really, that's the only way to make historical shirts. Plus it makes you feel much more... authentic. I took the basic pattern from The Tudor Tailor - Renaissance-era, yes, but apart from the collar and cuffs, shirts were pretty near the same between the 1500s and our era here. And it's a damn good pattern.

This is a light cotton from the Stash but I should have used linen because it just looks way better - more wrinkly, more lived-in, which is definitely what we're after here. I cut the body shorter and narrower than normal - these things are typically tents when they're cut right - but I didn't want a whole bunch of bulk under the jacket or extra shirttails to stuff into the breeches. I'll let Finn from Adventure Time demonstrate the intensely sexy 'Bulky Shirt Crammed Into Pants" look:

Yeah, like that.

Salient Point Number the Fifth: Makeup

Need that reference image again here.

I took a night last week to have a go at the makeup. Didn't bother with any prosthetics this time so it doesn't look near as dudely as it should but I wanted to focus on getting the shadows sorted out so I devoted most of the time to the left side of the face. Marat's eyes and cheekbones were huge, striking, and prominent so that was the path I took here. Gave everything a good base of medium tan first and then lightly brushed a layer of yellowish water-base over top for the highlights (skin the colour of old newsprint, yo). Tried a different route with the shadows than I normally do - like the highlights, they were layered in lightly with a fluffy brush (like a small powder brush) and darkened up once I got the basic placement down. This effect is MUCH better than the hard angles I've used for chaps like Marius and Giovanni.

Not quite the sort of thing you show the in-laws. The mysterious skin disease is still a work-in-progress - I got an initial effect by dabbing on a few layers of latex and then adding appropriate reds, light browns, and yellows. It's a step in the right direction but I gave myself a real skin condition getting the stuff off - it was like peeling off a band-aide the size of your face. So we won't be using latex next time.

And so to bed. Apart from the shoes and the weathering, this is pretty much in the bag. Now do I have the time to finish Malfatto for Emerald City or should I do Season 2 Korra? Let's see what the weekend brings....

*Is it 1830s? IDEK. In my mind, there was only ever ONE revolutionary movement in France.

Avec-Culottes

So the last week has been devoted to Marat's breeches and I managed to get them wrapped up this afternoon.

I've only made one other successful pair of pants in my life so this was a bit of a personal triumph. Consequently, this post is very GPOY-heavy.

Using the 1750s-1800s fall-front breech pattern from R.I. Davis' 17th and 18th Century Men's Costume, Cut, and Fashion, the mock-up came together well. The thighs took extensive fitting but the waist fit perfectly on the first go (hello, seven chocolate oranges consumed over Christmas. So that's where you went....).

The cotton muslin fabric is very close in colour to the final micro-suede fabric, which behaved quite differently when I sat down to do the final cut.

The fall-front itself took exceptional care to keep it neat and tidy. Here's a shot of it without the band across the top of the flap:

 And the interior workings, including the two "bearers" (it's the same pair, just different light):

And the finished top (only lacks the buttons and a good press):

Top-stitching is your friend here, boys and girls. I've never used it extensively in the past (lacking guts and a good excuse) but it's a darn good way of adding trims without excessive tomfoolery. Had to be particularly careful here because the microsuede has got a pretty good stretch to it and it tried all sorts of stunts under the needle.

Those are welts on either side of the flap. They are cut double on the fold and encase the raw edges of the flap.

Interestingly, fall-front breeches are still seen today as traditional Austrian/German lederhosen!

Stylish!

So adding the buttons this afternoon, I had to give it a go this evening.

 Tried it with the top-boots first but it was FAR too posh. (Though I'm definitely going with those boots if I ever do Camille Desmoulins' clothing....)

And then shoes/stockings.

Better. Less formal. But something's still not right.

Better! It was just a matter of un-strapping/un-buttoning the garter areas and letting the breeches drop down the leg a bit. A few steps around the house had the socks falling down too.

Probably takes a couple of inches off my height for sure. I remember reading the Lord of the Rings Fellowship movie book back in high school - the costume designer was talking about doing something similar for the hobbits' pants and it has stuck ever since. High waists and pants cut about five inches below the knee make for some shrimpy-arse people.

So! It's just a matter of being totally lazy in my dress which fits Marat's character perfectly. We'll talk about dressing carelessly in the next post.

Before we sign off, let's take a quick look sans jacket.

The high waist takes a bit of getting used to, not going to lie. But it's nice having my kidneys toasty warm. I have a hunch that these high-waisted breeches worked on the same principles as the joined hosen seen after the 1450s. You put the waist of the garment at your natural waist (around your navel) so it covers more and you don't get nasty back-drafts. Because you bend at your natural waist, it means the garment bends with your body. However, if you think you're cool and try wearing them 'gansta style,' (i.e. anything less than armpit height), you'll tear the crotch out in under ten steps.

There was more to add but my brain has ground to a halt for the night. Going to get the jacket finished this week and then it's on to the shirt and shoes and three million make-up tests.

Disguised as a Human Being

So two weeks ago, I was in Montreal on a museum conference. While I was there, I was witness to some of the student protests regarding the tuition hikes for the province. I, frankly, am the last person qualified to talk about politics and you can read all of the details on the interwebs. However, seeing the angry French people got me thinking of this chap here:

Jean-Paul Marat 1743-1793
Most ardent of the Jacobins, self-styled champion of the sans-culottes, editor of L'Ami du Peuple, best known for getting murdered in his bath by a young lady from Caen.

We've got a bit of a history. Met in Grade 11 Social Studies class during the French Revolution unit, shared some brain-space on a few sketches, a few short stories, and a one-person play performed after school for the teachers (yes, I was one of those...). Hung out a bit in university too. He's got a habit of turning up each spring/early summer and so, with a few weeks remaining in June, he's on the brain again.

I had initially planned to do Dr. Jacquin from The Duellists as my light costume for SDCC but time is tight and I want to really nail that one (proper buttons, lots of hand-sewing, proper fabrics, etc). So instead, I opted for Marat. Why? No clue. Will anyone get it? Probably not.

But onwards ho!

First off, was the muslin for the coat. I had drafted up a very rough pattern for this costume about six years ago (wasn't kidding about the history, eh?) so I dug that out, grabbed a copy of 17th and 18th Century Men's Costume, Cut, and Fashion by R.I. Davis, and got down to work. There are a few pictures of Marat out there but I'm after this look in particular*:

He was a bit.... eclectic with his clothing during the Revolution. That style of coat is very 1780s-1790s so I took the basic design from Davis' following pattern:

The revers - also known as lapels to modern people - weren't the right shape on my initial muslin mock-up so I hacked off a rough square of fabric, pinned it to the coat front, and drew the proper shape of the lapel on it. Here's a photo from Giovanni's doublet, because showing is easier than telling:

After that was completed, I cut the new lapel out, pinned it to the coat body, and changed the pattern accordingly when I cut the second muslin out.

Overall, the muslin went together almost flawlessly, which is a rare and delightful thing. Even better, my drafted sleeve pattern matched up perfectly with the armholes on the first try.

 

Win? I'm just happy the sleeve fits on the first go. Which never happens.

So, apart from sewing the sleeve in backwards, everything behaved as it should. Warning: Self-Indulgent Fitting Photos off the port bow!

Coats from this era tended to be high-waisted - right about your natural waistline or slightly below. I dropped this one about five inches from my waist to balance my top and bottom halves out. Marat was a very short guy (about 5' 4" or so) with short legs. So being a bit like Legschilla, I had to make adjustments. Which brings me to the subject of pants. Or breeches. Or... a towl or a sheet or something.

Since Marat was tight with the sans-culottes - literally, 'without breeches' - I'm inclined to think he wore similar gear to them, looking something like this:

However, the sketch above seems to have him wearing a rather nicely fitted pair of breeches - from what I can tell. In my mind, he's always worn breeches - tatty, gross, and stained with... whoknowswhat - but breeches none-the-less. So I'll likely go that route.

Fabric Choices:

The Stash has supplied most of it, based on material bought for this project a number of years ago. The coat outer will be made with a chocolate brown wool flannel - heavier-weight but not melton (on the bottom right) and lined with a striped cotton (above). Had to do a photo test to see how the fabrics behaved with the flash on (due to the inevitable flash photography at conventions). The brown flannel isn't as heavy as I would have liked but that's why God created interfacing.

Right. Off to bed, then. Actually, wait! Another self-indulgent picture - this time from Calgary Expo:

Cil as the Marquis from Guy Davis' comic of the same name and me in Marius' gear. Still need to write a post-Expo post too....

Stay tuned for further coatage on the morrow!

*I was discussing this project with one of the soldier chaps at work (he's also a Civil War re-enactor and so is pre-exposed to strange historical clothes). I did a quick internet search to find the main reference photo - "Oh my GOD, he's ugly!" - and then described Marat's famous death in the bath-tub, which met with suitable approval and then a description of how to kill someone with a sharpened Phillips screw-driver.